We’ve done this collaboration a number of times. It’s always been such a cool show. We’ll be playing our last show of 2008 with Busdriver, a super creative and amazing MC from here in LA at the Little Temple tonight. We’ll start the night paying his music with him and finish the night with a Kneebody set. Badass!
Yearly Archives: 2008
Great and Bittersweet
It’s the morning of November 5th, 2008. For some of us it feels like waking up hung over from an amazing party. Last night we elected a new president. I’m really proud of our country. The older I get and the more I get to travel and read history, the more I appreciate and respect our system of government. I’m in awe of the way that in the midst of two wars and an economic crisis, our country can step aside, respect the framework of our system and peacefully elect a new government. For similarly powerful countries in the world, regime change could require blood to be shed and at minimum chaos. But I was really amazed at the way that it seemed everyone put their differences aside and respected the outcome. John McCain made an amazing and eloquent concession speech. He showed the respect and dignity of someone who deserved to be running in a presidential race. His words and example I think will help to heal the divide that exists in our country. Obama’s speech was amazing! It was a really great night!In addition to the election, I’m also extremely disappointed that California voted for Proposition 8. It sends a paranoid and unfair message and I think will be looked back on by everyone as injustice. Prop 8 was disguised as an initiative that was for family values and pro-children when it was really homophobia and bigotry. I think that California is more of a complicated state than people think. And also that LA County who voted unanimously for the measure is also misunderstood as socially progressive.
Paul Simonon is the man
OK, I’m on a Paul Simonon binge right now. I think he’s my favorite bass player. I can’t stop listening to The Good The Bad and The Queen. It’s a really great artist collaboration record. DangerMouse is the producer. He never over does it. The songs are all there, bare elements and bits of sound and beats that sit perfectly. The guys playing are really showcased. You can hear where they put beats how they phrase and what notes they choose… It’s a total Paul album. His bass lines are right there in the front of every song and they are stark and beautiful. Also his illustrations are very very cool. I just read an interview with him in bass player (www.bassplayer.com/article/paul-simonon/Aug-03/784). In it he reveals a lot about his relationship to music through the Clash and the reggae he was always drawn towards. Listening to this reminds me of talking to my buddy Lonnie Marshall who played bass with Joe Strummer on the album “Earthquake Weather” after the Clash officially dissolved. He said that when they played in London on that tour, people would yell at him on stage and yell “Where’s Paul??!!!”. He said that later when they were playing in Japan, he finally ran into him at a show and that Paul was a really nice sweet guy.
Fat City
I remember when Siskel and Ebert dedicated an episode of one of their shows to films of the seventies. At one point during the show, Siskel said that the 1970’s were the last great era of film. Among others, his reasons were that back then, studios were dedicating budgets to film makers to tell any kind of story they wanted to pursue. That is why you had really interesting and strange stories with big name actors being shot beautifully. My Dad and I watched “Fat City” tonight. It was a movie made in 1972 by John Huston. Its about two boxers at very different points of their lives. From the opening scene with the location dissolves of Stockton (below) I said that I already love the movie. Stacy Keach and a young Jeff Bridges are in it. My Dad said that Huston was a boxer at one point and at different stages of his life, he had all sorts of strange odd jobs. This is a really great movie with a story that could have been written by Bukowski.
Was America smarter then?
Fergie, Beyonce, Ashlee Simpson, Clay Aiken, Jennifer Lopez, Celine Dion, Akon, Soljah Boy, Jay Z, Mariah Cary….This was from a show filmed in 1969. These were two popular artists. The United States had been at war for four or five years. What has changed? Was America smarter then? Is it really this impossible to see relevant, amazing and unique artists on television performing and completely owning a song? I think that these clips are beautiful and sad at the same time!!
Walk The Line
Johnny wrote this song for his first wife Vivian. This is footage from a concert in 1959 about seven years after he got out of the airforce.
Our East Coast October Trip
Back earlier in the fall we took a trip to New York. There was a gig in Camden, New Jersey at Camden County College. We’ve played and taught there a number of times before all courtesy of professor Mike Billingsly. After the drive from NY to NJ, over the Gothels Bridge, through Sopranos Land, USA we made it to the green campus. After a sound check at the school, we drove to a Target nearby and bought a friesbee and a football. Sporting goods are a must on the road. We ended up playing ultimate frisbee with a football for the next couple hours in the field outside the concert hall. Shane was barefoot. We were all completely exhausted and dirty. It was only four of us actually I think Ben mentioned something about not wanting to hurt his fingers. Backstage there was a small shower but the nozzle didn’t work so well. A small stream of water would trickle out and that was it. To wash, you had to fill your hand with cold water and splash it on. There were no towels (not that there needed to be…I don’t think that they expected the night’s entertainment to get nearly as sweaty and mud covered as we were.). We were changing and in various states of undress and filth when the opening band from Camden/Philly walked into the room. Not that we needed to really explain why we looked the way we did, but there were some awkward words exchanged when they came in. They were really nice guys. A big group, they sounded good. The bass player lived in Philly and took lessons with Gerald Veasley. Anyway, here’s a video from that concert. Again, post psycho game of football outside. It was one of the nights of the world series.
After this show, we made it back to New York where the next day we had a rehearsal for a show we booked at the 55 Bar with Josh Roseman and Ben Monder. This was a really cool bill. It was all of us along with those two really cool guys. We rehearsed in a semi circle at Josh’s space in Williamsburg. Josh had such a cool blend of music. Some really nice spiritual meets Al Green song, a cool long form pice with a totally strange melody played by the horns. We worked on his music and Shane’s music. The gig at the 55 Bar was awesome. Two sets. We were packed into the corner and a good crowd was there too. It was a lot f fun. Ben Monder is so great to play with. It was really great sitting between him and Adam and getting to hear the way they were voicing chords… I’ve always been a big fan of his from his album “Excavations”. Here’s a photo of him and Ben at that gig before we played just after we set up:The next day, we drove upstate to Ithaca, New York where we had a day of teaching at Cornell and a concert later that night. First of all, the fall (this was October) is the best time to drive around upstate New York. The leaves are beautiful. Here’s a shot I took out the window of the van as we were headed up there:We made it to Cornell, set up in a hurry and taught our master class. The students were mostly from our old friend Miles Brown’s jazz band. Miles went to school at Eastman with us. He’s a great bass player and his dad Steve is a great jazz guitarist. It was awesome getting to hang out with him that day. Later that night, we played a gig there in town. Fun fun. And after that, there was a jam session at the cafe across the street. Ithaca’s the town that Adam and Miles grew up in. It think that the cafe there was where they payed their first gig. Here’s a picture of Miles sitting in with the musicians at the jam session:After Ithaca, we made our way back down towards the city. We had a gig at The Falcon Arts Center in Marboro, New York. This is an “awesome/only on the road would you ever experience this place” kind of place. In the small upstate community of Marlboro. It’s an old church that has been rebuilt in the backyard of organizer Tony Falco. The venue is run completely through donations and is an opportunity for te community to hear music. It’s a house concert setting.The next day we made it back to New York where we played a concert at Galapagos. An awesome show billed by James Donahue. We played with Lilly Maase’s band The Suite Unraveling. And finally, we finished the night with a performance at a loft party at Lilly Maase’s space Monduma. Again, along with Lily’s group this was a late night musical explosion. Here’s a shot from that night. It’s of the floor by my feet: